I have spent the week pondering whether or not to change Limited and Andrew around in terms of house responsibility. Actually I have spent months pondering it and asked the Tarot for guidance as well.
One is hesitant to make changes too soon or too lightly but I really do feel that Limited is better for the responsibility of this house and Andrew for the guest house.
I am however conscious of what it all means in terms of 'face' although I suspect the 'lighter duties' of the Guest House would better suit Andrew and the more constant work of this house would better suit Limited. What to do? I first thought about it when we moved in but did not want to act too quickly and have been pondering it ever since.
I have been putting off the decision because I felt uncomfortable about doing it and then told myself that I was 'telling myself a story' about what it might mean to Andrew and there was always more than one story. Anyway, I finally bit the bullet today and did the deed. Not surprisingly Andrew hardly seemed surprised. I had wondered what he was thinking about how it was all going... he works more slowly than Limited and forgets things more easily ... and worrying that he might lose his job. Perhaps, I told myself yesterday, that having it settled might be a relief. And I think it was.
If anything Limited looked a bit horrified but I suspect that has more to do with dynamics regarding the hierarchical nature of his relationship with Andrew. Still, there is no point keeping either of them in a job to which they are not best suited. Andrew has very good handyman skills and we need to get some work done on the Guest House and he can oversee this. I told him this. Limited wants to learn to cook and I need to have him in this house if I am to teach him.
Anyway, great relief on my part now that it is done and perhaps on theirs. Limited is a very good worker and he thinks for himself - not always common in such places - and takes responsibility. Andrew will have less to do at the Guest House because guests are infrequent and he can work at a more leisurely pace which I am sure will suit him better as well.
I have told them they do not need to come in the morning and we can begin afresh on Monday with new jobs and new routines.
One of the things of which I am reminded is how much time is spent organising 'staff.' I have been back nearly two weeks and the time has disappeared on disobeying generators; disappearing septic tank covers and disappointing performances. The reality is that the supposed time-saving of house staff or servants, which is not a word I like but which is the reality, is swallowed up by the monitoring, managing and manoeuvring of it all. But it is the way of this world and the most valuable thing you can give in such places is employment.
That is not to say that it should be a free ride. I have had to get in touch with the security people this week.... Buffalo Guards.... now there's a name, no doubt given because the Buffalo is, after the Hippopotamus, Africa's most dangerous animal... because the guards have been a little lax about who they allow into the compound. Malawi is not like other places in Africa but it would be foolish to forget that it is Africa.
Yesterday afternoon Limited came to tell me there was a man from the Water Board outside. In fact there were five men in a car, supposedly from the Water Board, waving a piece of paper relating to invoices from last March. I said they would have to go to the office and gave them an address. No-one appeared at the office and Cynthia, who works for Greg, sent a note saying one had to be careful because they might not be legitimate and there were thugs around.
It raised the issue of how effective the guards really are, particularly given the fact that the lids to our septic tanks were stolen on Tuesday night. These tanks are out the front of the property and without lids incredibly dangerous, particularly for small children or people walking in the night. Falling into a septic tank must be a ghastly experience even if not deadly, which I imagine, with fumes, it would be. Not to mention health issues with open tanks of sewage out the front of our compound.
I told the guards to put an old water geyser which has been sitting by the driveway for more than a year, waiting to be collected by the property manager, over the top. With a few hours it was back by the driveway. The guards insisted they could not protect the old geyser and had put bricks and plastic and branches around the open tanks. Ridiculous I said, put it back. If a child falls in they will die. For that matter, if an adult feel in they would die. God, what a horrible end!!
Later that day Charles, one of the night guards came to beg me to let them take the geyser off at night and put it inside the compound for safety. There was a logic to that which escaped me, or maybe it didn't. The logic was he did not want the responsibility of staying awake to watch it.
'You have to watch it,' I said. 'But no, he exclaimed, 'it was not possible to make it secure.' Despite there being two of them it seems, or rather it filtered out in conversation that at night one watches and one sleeps which is not at all what they are paid to do. 'You will leave it and you will watch it,' I said firmly.
I had no choice but to take the issue to their boss and have since been told that they will replace the septic tank covers and the guards have been told they are not to sleep at night and no-one but no-one is allowed into the compound without identification or prior approval from a resident. Here's hoping. It is Africa after all.
Needless to say this afternoon, when they turned up to replace the lids the old geyser was still there. It had survived the night. I am sure the night guards have day jobs which accounts for the sleep/watch scenario but that is not what they are paid to do and from what I can see they are quite well paid as guards. At least compared to local standards.
There went another half a day or more on organising. What do I do with my time otherwise? Good question. Edit manuscripts of which I have a few to do; get back to my painting which remains a possibility and a hope, and work on my blogs and books and poetry.
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